Conventionally, tubular packs are filled with the respective product and closed with a closing clasp of metal at regular intervals. The tubular pack is an endless material so that the closing clasps are arranged such that between two successive closing clasps, a tubular pack filled with a product and an empty tubular section are alternately configured. To produce a single tubular pack filled with a product, the tubular pack is separated by cutting in the empty section after it has been closed with closing clasps.
A device for producing tubular packs filled with a foodstuff is described in DE 40 11 470 A1. For closing the individual tubular packs, closing clasps consisting of a flat metal piece are used. The metal piece, which is rectangular in the non-deformed state, is laid about the filled tubular pack and closed by a closing device. By means of the closing device, the closing clasp is bent and pressed together from two sides so that a flat closing clasp is created. The ends of the closing clasp overlap each other to avoid that the product in the tubular pack escapes. Thus, the closing clasp known from DE 40 11 470 A1 is substantially rectangular in the closed state, the force required for closing being exerted upon the tubular pack by the two opposite longer sides.
Such closing clasps suffer from the disadvantage that tightness problems do often occur, particularly because of the ends of the closing clasps overlapping each other. This leads to the fact that the products do not keep well and the products have to be stored in refrigerating shelves. Another disadvantage consists in that the described device is only able to process closing clasps of a certain size. This results in that only tubular packs within a small diameter range can be processed. The processable dimensional variations are very small. Further, it is difficult to process different packaging materials if they differ in material thickness and thus, a different amount of material appears in the bundled state at that site where the closing clasp is arranged. This leads to tightness problems very often. To be able to process different tubular packs by this device, high modification efforts are required.
It is an object of the invention to provide a device for producing tubular packs that are filled with a product, by means of which different tubular packs can be closed. Further, it is an object of the invention to provide a corresponding method.